SOURCE: Harris, Michael R. “Irving Babbitt: Civilized Standards and Humanistic Education.” In Five Counterrevolutionists in Higher Education, pp. 49-79. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1970.

In the essay below, Harris evaluates Babbitt's ideas pertaining to higher education.

To repudiate the traditional Christian and classical checks and at the same time fail to work out some new and more vital control upon impulse and temperament is to be guilty of high treason to civilization.

—Irving Babbitt, 1932

Preeminent among the New Humanists, Irving Babbitt opposed educational innovations made in the name of operational utility. He denounced the notion that universities should function in response to immediate societal needs.¹ He did not want institutions of higher learning to provide advice to men of affairs, initiate extension programs, or adjust their internal educational programs toward matters of operational utility. He wanted universities to discover cultural standards and colleges to inculcate them. Thus he...